Welcome Back! We are so happy to have you back on campus and are excited for the 2010-2011 academic year to start. We hope you are just as excited for the new opportunities that await you this year. Advisers are here to help you with your transition, whether that transition is from high school to college, another university to Penn State, another campus to University Park or just making that transition back into school from a great summer break. We hope to see you at least once during the fall semester to discuss your spring semester classes, but also hope you will come see us if you have any other questions or to let us know how the semester is going! During the first ten days of classes advisers will hold walk-in hours if you have concerns about your current schedule, would like to discuss dropping or adding a course, or have an issue that can’t wait. After the first ten days of classes you will be able to schedule an appointment with your adviser. If you aren’t sure who your assigned adviser is, you can look it up on eLion under Adviser Information, which will also give you our email address so that you can contact us. The Scheduling System, as well as department websites, also have good information on advisers, hours and ways to contact your adviser.
 
SCHEDULING APPOINTMENTS:

You can schedule appointments and see our calendars by visiting the Liberal Arts Appointment Scheduling System.

• Click on “Appointments”
• Register

Your user name and password do not need to be the same as your Penn State Account. Remember to write down both, and keep them in a safe place for the next time you want to schedule an appointment.

APPOINTMENTS VERSUS WALK-INS:

Appointments are meant for issues that you know will take longer than 10 or 15 minutes. Examples of topics that could be covered in an appointment include:

• Change of major or concurrent major paperwork
• Long-range planning 
• Study abroad plans 
• Major/career exploration 
• Class schedules for the upcoming semester 
• Other topics that you want to discuss in detail and would like a designated time to do so

A few important points:

• Appointments are made in 1/2 hour blocks.
• If you are assigned a specific adviser, you must schedule an appointment with that adviser.

TO EMAIL, OR NOT TO EMAIL:

There has been a significant increase in e-mail interactions with students over the last few years. Below are a few guidelines to follow when you write an e-mail to one of us, and decide when you should:

• Include your name, a greeting (ex. Hi Shery), and your ID number.
• Please do not use text message lingo, we can’t understand your emails if they include partial words. This is something you should get used to, our future employers will expect the same. 
• We are happy to answer quick questions via email. We will not, however, replace an advising meeting with e-mail correspondence. For example, discussing possible courses for the next semester is something that you should do in person, not through the computer. If we feel that something is too difficult to explain over the computer, or a reply would be too extensive, we’ll ask you to come in and speak to us personally. 
• Please limit your e-mails. If you have several questions, e-mail them all at once. Avoid sending multiple e-mails on the same day.

We’ll do our best to answer your questions as quickly as possible, but we might not be able to answer them on the same day. We also do not answer e-mails during vacations, holidays, and on weekends.

Have a great first week of classes, we would love to hear about your summer and we look forward to working with you throughout the year!